"natural" products can be produced in factories

Karabas v. TC Heartland LLC, 2025 WL 777001, No. 24-CV-2722 (AMD) (VMS) (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 11, 2025)

Karabas alleged that Heartland deceptively marketed its stevia-based sweetener as “100% Natural” when the sweetener’s two ingredients — stevia leaf extract and erythritol — are synthetic because of the process through which the defendant produced the ingredients, which were allegedly not natural. The court granted the motion to dismiss.

There were no allegations that the chemicals used in production were added to the product:

No reasonable consumer would conclude that a product contains artificial ingredients merely because it is produced “in industrial factories” using “synthetic processes.” Indeed, that is the way most consumer goods are produced. “A reasonable consumer would not think that a compound found in nature is artificial even if it is produced in a different way than nature produces it, if the way it is produced is that it is derived from a natural product and does not contain anything synthetic.”

Moreover, the package included a description of the process by which the stevia was extracted — that the stevia leaves are steeped in water, the “sweet parts of the leaf” are extracted, the extract is separated, filtered, and purified, and the erythritol is fermented. That was sufficient to clear up any ambiguities, given that the product was a “niche, specialty product” whose purchasers “are undoubtedly more likely to exhibit a higher standard of care.”